The race to the GOP nomination has very little to do with actually winning the Presidency, and much more to do with selling books. Just about every GOP contender has a new book, or books out, as well as other Republicans connected with the GOP race.

President Barack Obama had success weaving his books – including “Dreams of My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope” – into his 2008 run for President. But the Republicans have taken it one step further, with all of them incorporating book signings into their campaigns.

Basically, the GOP field and assorted hangers ons and spouses, have used the Republican Presidential race as a way to sell books and line their pockets. George Will - “Mr. Cain, who used this as a book tour, in a fundamentally disrespectful approach to the selection of presidents.” – hit the nail on the head regarding Cain. But the fact is, all the candidates are doing it.

This isn’t a political campaign any longer for the GOP. It’s a book-selling scam.

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55 Ways To Receive Monies From Federal, State and Local Programs That You Will Never Have To Pay Back, By Michele Bachmann.

75 Ways To Use Your Old Governmental Employee ID In Order To Extract Hundreds of Millions of Dollars From Private Corporations, By Newton Gingrich.

95 Ways To Use The Federal Bankruptcy Laws To Split-Up Recently Procured Businesses by Breaking Down Those Businesses into Component Parts, Throwing Employees Onto the Streets and Pocketing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, By Mitt Romney.

Though true to this post, she was a master at quick self-promotion, reaping big bucks for herself & daughter, while aligning herself quickly with the Tea Party for results. Her star has faded, but then so has McCain and Newt and a host of other "serious politicians". Imagine if Sarah had shelled out for bling at Macy's in the hundreds of thousands like Newt did, instead of gasp, clothes for campaign appearances. You know those females, they just can't help spending frivolously.

Neither can that blow-dried poof, Edwards, if I recall the arc of scandal past (apparently, that isn't the *only* thing he can't avoid doing frivolously ;)

Your point really doesn't seem to have a whole lot of credibility though. I mean, you learned about Newt's issues the same way you learned about Sarah Palin's. Newt isn't a national candidate yet ... do you think if he becomes one that the issues won't be rolled out center-stage again? And if he doesn't are you really comparing apples and oranges?

Also, don't you think that when someone pops up out of nowhere to stand for the second-highest office in the land - literally, secretly whisked from Alaska and presented at the convention as a first introduction - that EVERY minor detail would (and should) be amplified just because of the small amount of available data and the exceedingly short period of time a nation had to scramble and assemble enough information about who the woman actually was to make an semi-informed choice (and subsequently gage just how fucking insane John McCain must be to select her).

It's simple - the fact that she has a vagina or was a state Miss some years ago is irrelevant. That she used that Miss title as a college scholarship shouldn't be insulted (e.g. did she really exploit her looks so that MILF is warranted? They got the 60+ year old Hillary for showing "too much cleavage" ) That people (including the moronic press) couldn't get straight the basic number of schools Palin went to just shows standard smear tactics. And she did get a degree and achieved reasonable success as a TV announcer.

That every bit of her caretaking of her children was analyzed was basically unfair, as Obama managed to work out of a different state/district than his kids, and no one asked him, "aren't you neglecting your kids?" That she spent money on clothes during a campaign was again sexist - no one bothered McCain about his expensive shoes, which he needs to be on his feet. Her job was to come out of nowhere and mesmerize people - that takes a lot of support, including the right wardrobe.

That she was very good at coming out of nowhere and rousing a crowd was scary (and competent - more competent than Kerry in that regard).

That her handle on issues was tentative and facile was obvious - and should have been easy prey. However, she's very good at memorable slogans/soundbites, and her opponents spent most of their time digging into family trivia than confronting her unworkable.

[The "what is the Bush doctrine" was a "gotcha" question. Was it to pre-emptively attack & invade countries you don't like? Whisk people off to torture? Occupy the entire Mideast for its oil? Move to mercenary military-for-hire tied to large corrupt sole-source contracts? Support the rich by unsustainable tax cuts? I'm still not sure.]

That she quit her job as governor and has been a total flake in ditching her "presidential bus tours" should be bashed as many times as needed. And while her attempt at latching onto the Tea Party has been relatively successful, she should fail by the same standards where the Tea Party fails. Of course many Dems can't seem to figure out the Tea Party is still winning even while theoretically losing. It's depressing.

Sara Palin -- qualified? She was and is an ignorant person, who has perhaps a better memory than Rick Perry, and a smoother delivery than Herman Cain. "Sexist tripe?". If Sara looked like Angela Merkel you would not know who she is because she would still be sitting in Wasilla, trying to see Russia from her front porch.

Aaargghh, should have known this incantation would bring you out of your den.

Back on your pole, dude, back on your pole. Now I've got Sarah & her Hot 7 dwarves/giants dancing through my head. Plus Ross' dobermans as a DVD extra. (hmmm, McCain could be a stunt double there. And perhaps a free bag of Santorum with every purchase?)

Totally depends on personal taste. The Mittster has the all-American white bread Arrow-shirt guy thing, with cool reserve and no baby fat. You know, Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby character. Some are known to find that type very hot.

You know W's famous "Mission Acccomplished" photo op? if Hollywood were doing it, they would hire a Mittster look alike, no? Like President Whitmore, the former pilot in Independence Day.

Well, I would certainly nominate her for most winktacular vice presidential nominee I've personally observed.

And Rick Perry? Ok. But at some point it became a valid question if the man has had a stroke or something ... bad flashbacks to the later years of Regan, IMO.

Herman Cain I would place as her exact equivalent in every way that matters for a candidate ... with the exception that he had not had the opportunity to demonstratively abuse the powers of an elected office before unleashing his buffoonery upon America.

{Edit: in case the distinction between this book the other two Obama titles mentioned isn't clear, this title was released in what can only be described as a marketing approach fully positioned to capitalize on what was a foregone decision to make a run for president (pretty much like Herman Cain's). And, while I'm not knocking Obama's tender thoughts regarding his daughters ... he even released this book from the White House (possibly donating proceeds to a cool charity?). Now, this might be misconstrued to be implying that indeed Democrats are no different than republicans. But upon deeper inspection, not necessarily so, it seems perhaps equally plausible that Barack Obama is, deep-down, 97% republican.}

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I have no idea or particular opinion about whether Garrison Keillor is guilty of anything, though it's always struck me as odd. But this somewhat but not quite illuminating article gums up the works a bit when taken as a part of a whole. The whole, of course, being accusations flying hither and yon with little if any explanation - even when they could stand some.

(THREAD) Yulya Alferova—ex-wife of Russian oligarch Artem Klyushin and a member of Trump's entourage in Moscow in 2013—is yet another witness who confirms, albeit inadvertently, Trump lied about what happened at the Ritz Moscow. The list of such witnesses is now very, very long. pic.twitter.com/BViILTZP67

On the hamster wheel of continual work, production and consumption, and Hebert Marcuse's.dreams.

[....] Marcuse did not live to see the 1980s, however [....] But his ideas lived on. In a 2004 essay for Harper’s magazine, for example, novelist and essayist Mark Slouka took to task the U.S. obsession with work [....]

One woman’s account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.....American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougal’s story ...David Pecker, AMI CEO, describes the President as “a personal friend... he never printed a word about Trump without his approval.”

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Was Trump diminishing the significance of the word treason, projecting onto the opposition (as he so often does) his own transgressions, by accusing Democrats of treason for not applauding him at the SOU?

Talking heads don't appear to have had much time to look at the details yet. Reporters are waiting on the formal announcement from Rod Rosenstein of the indictments. It is clear that they are directly related to Putin, not clear yet whether to the Trump administration.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment Friday against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities accused of violating US laws to interfere with US elections and political processes [....]

[....] in a blow to President Donald Trump, the GOP plan to enshrine his four-part immigration framework came the furthest of any proposal from reaching the 60-vote margin needed for passage, failing by 39-60. A competing bipartisan agreement got rejected, 54-45, after a furious White House campaign to defeat it, including a Thursday veto threat.

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, who served as President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller over multiple days this week, NBC News has learned from two sources familiar with the proceedings.

When a transgender woman told doctors at a hospital in New York that she wanted to breast-feed her pregnant partner’s baby, they put her on a regimen of drugs that included an anti-nausea medication licensed in Britain and Canada but banned in the United States.

Within a month, according to the journal Transgender Health, the woman, 30, who was born male, was producing droplets of milk. Within three months — two weeks before the baby’s due date — she had increased her production to eight ounces of milk a day [....]

President Trump endorsed a 25-cent gas tax hike to pay for infrastructure at a White House meeting this morning with senior administration officials and members of Congress from both parties, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Trump also said he was open to other ways to pay for infrastructure, according to a source with direct knowledge.